


Joint Lessons in Love

by Webtrinsic



Category: Herbert West - Reanimator - H. P. Lovecraft, Re-Animator (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Teachers, Daniel Cain is Smitten, F/F, Falling In Love, First Kiss, First Meetings, Gay Herbert West (Re-Animator), Happy Halloween, Herbert West Has Feelings, M/M, References to Frankenstein, a little ooc
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-31
Updated: 2020-10-31
Packaged: 2021-03-09 02:34:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,984
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27297217
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Webtrinsic/pseuds/Webtrinsic
Summary: Daniel Cain and Herbert West are forced to teach a class together, not expecting to fall in love along the way.
Relationships: Daniel Cain/Herbert West, Megan Halsey/The Bride
Comments: 6
Kudos: 26





	Joint Lessons in Love

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Olyve](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Olyve/gifts).



> Yasss I actually love thissss, HAPPY HALLOWEEN MY LOVELIES HAVE A JOYOUS HOLIDAY 
> 
> Also thank Olyve for giving me the idea :)

Whether it be because budget cuts or just another way for principal Dean to wordlessly encourage him to grovel for a reassignment at the cost of taking his secretary daughter out on a date, Dan doesn’t know nor does he really care.

He’s basically getting the same pay as when he taught alone, minus around three dollars, while getting help on grading assignments and assistance on some of the harder labs.

It’s a new teacher, one he doesn’t know but Dan is sure he’ll get along with regardless of the hushed whispers and gossip thrown around the teachers lounge. He’d always been rather personable, no matter how outlandish or...fickle the other person turned out to be.

Doctor Herbert West, someone Francesca the Italian teacher had joked might even stump his charms, may just do that. But a paycheck was a paycheck, and Dan wouldn’t be missing out on his even if he didn’t get along with his new cohort.

* * *

Herbert West isn’t significantly impacted that he’s been partnered with someone for his first year teaching. He isn’t inherently a social creature, though he is smart enough to understand that having a partner in a town he’s never been with people he’s never met could be a good thing. Especially when it came to dealing with students.

* * *

Dean introduces them a day before the year starts, explaining their schedules, and making sure their lesson plans match up well enough for their classes to go as smoothly as they could with two different instructors. 

There’s a split second Dan’s almost sure the man’s not going to accept his offered hand, but this short, admittedly attractive man gives in, begrudgingly in what seems to be almost for the benefit of their employer being in the room rather than saving Dan from awkwardly putting his hand away.

Satisfied, Principal Halsey leads them to their shared classroom, his hand firm on Dan’s shoulder as they stop in the doorway. Dan does like the man, he’s a fair employer and very generous, except he’d really wish he stopped trying to set him up with his daughter.

Speaking of Meg, he’s a little surprised she isn’t here, she often took any opportunity to see him. Except this meeting was rather important, Dan could only bet Dean omitted the details of this conference since he knew it had to go well and couldn’t be jeopardized. The man’s money came from the students, and the student’s passed with the help of their teachers, therefore Dan and Herbert needed to have things sorted now if they were going to teach oncoming money.

The hand on his shoulder apparently didn’t go unnoticed by Dr. West either, who raised a brow for a second, seemingly gathering the image in his mind for later before inspecting the class. His fingers ran amongst surfaces in search of dust before brushing his fingers together when he eventually found some.

Dan tried not to let himself get distracted, taking in the room with less speculative eyes that Herbert did. It was big, five large windows lining the side wall, an emergency shower in the back corner, an operation table tucked in the upper corner near the impossibly huge chalkboard. There were two desks at the front of the room, his and Herbert’s while the students all had lab tables with the stools they could choose to sit on.

“I hope this will do,” Dean chuckled, and the good doctor’s mouth is a little too dry to answer.

“Yes, yes this will do just nicely,” Herbert returned, enthusiastic enough for the both of them.

“Good, I’ll let you two discuss anything else you need to work out. Just remember to lock up when you leave,” Principal Halsey’s hand slips away as he turns to leave and Dan finally lets out the breath he’d been holding, before he nearly hiccups when the hand returns once again.

“Oh and Dan I wanted to give this, I do hope you attend,” there’s an envelope being pressed into his limp hands, and Dan knows what it is. Meg had been blabbering about it the other week when he’d come in to negotiate his pay. Dean was having a dinner to celebrate some award or another with Doctor Hill, and since Meg had to attend, well why not invite him? His apparent hopefully future son in law.

Dan smiled and simply nodded, tucking it into his pocket, fighting the roll of his eyes only for him to realize he was being watched. Had Herbert said something? Putting an anxious hand on the back of his neck, his fake smile turned almost bashful under the other man’s gaze.

_ Small talk, start with small talk _ . His mother used to advise when there was someone he wanted to befriend but couldn’t quite do so. He remembered it used to make him so anxious then, he’d always gotten along with people so easily without having to lift a finger, so when someone didn’t like him the world crashed at his feet. It got better when he got older, easier to brush people off knowing they weren’t worth his time, except this was his new cohort, and that old feeling of insecurity bubbled up in his chest almost painfully.

“I hear you were in Switzerland before-”

“Yes, it wasn’t the most pleasant of experiences,” Herbert cuts him off, and the soft  _ oh _ Dan let’s out is either ignored or unnoticed as Herbert turns back towards the front of the room.

“Which desk would you like?” The question is a little firm, and it’s obvious to Dan by the way the man is staring wistfully at the desk closer to the examination table that the man’s mind is already set, so Dan gestures to the opposite one on instinct. A little too eager to please, plus he didn’t really care which desk he took anyway. If Herbert wanted a specific one, Dan would oblige. 

Herbert is the embodiment of a cat that successfully knocked a glass off the table as he smirked and rushed towards his new desk. His excitement filled the room and Dan could feel it well up inside him too.

The sight of the glasses clad man is endearing. Dan wasn’t blind, he noticed attractive people, and picked up on things he liked about a certain person fairly quickly, except never like this.

Realizing he hadn’t been doing anything, Dan worked quickly to fill his own desk, even going out to the car to grab a few extra things, Herbert barely looks back up from the doorway when he returns. Engrossed in straightening a stack of papers before he was preoccupied with making sure his paperclips weren’t bent too badly out of shape.

There’s a copy on his desk of Herbert’s lesson plans that wasn’t there when he went out to the car, the extra plan he had on his desk was gone as well, and when he turned his head he could see it on Herbert’s desk, aligned perfectly with the corner of the mahogany. 

Taking his seat, Dan knows immediately he’ll be spending his first paycheck on a new chair, and the wince on the other side of the room accompanied by a squeak, the disgruntled look on Herbert’s face lets him know the other man would likely be making a similar purchase.

Dr. Cain studies the man’s plans with interest, there unlike anything he’d ever seen. Outlandish and still as he pulled out his own laminated plan, they fit together like puzzle pieces. In fact for every line he read, if he read the next line the other man’s plan they matched up beautifully. They basically complete each other's sentences. So much so when he tried to read them on their own, they were lacking. 

There’s a scuffle on the other side of the room, Herbert sitting up straighter, a flurry of papers rustling in Dan’s ear as he read on.

Across the room Herbert shifted in his croaking seat, having the same revelation as Dan. His head snapped painfully to the side to look over at Dr. Cain, the man’s mind glass, and it wasn’t the only thing Herbert noticed. The man’s side profile took a bit of his breath away, the reasoning clear even when it was foreign to him.

He’d never been attracted to anyone before. His pursuit of knowledge took up most of his thoughts, including attraction. That didn’t mean he was disillusioned to fine features, he just didn’t find them significant.

The only time he ever found himself mulling over physical features in general was when reading, and rereading Frankenstein and trying to put the monster together in his head. It either came out beautiful or decrepitly disfigured. It was never the same image in his head when that unfortunate amalgamation of parts came to mind.

“This may sound completely off base, but for your footnote here, instead of a cat why don’t we use iguana’s instead?” Dan calls across the room, gaining the shorter man’s attention before the image of Doctor Daniel Cain could shape into Frankenstein's monster. 

The suggestion is a trigger in his brain, and the straw that broke the camel's back. It is confirmation that Daniel Cain is a blessing. Someone on his level, maybe not emotionally because it didn’t take Herbert a full minute to realize the man wore his heart on his sleeve.

No matter, the man’s disposition would be exceedingly helpful when dealing with the students. Meaning it would be Dan dealing with them.

A handsome, well-liked, intelligent man as a partner wouldn’t be so bad. The stress of this upcoming year depleted from his shoulders.

“A fine suggestion Daniel,” Herbert returns sounding a little choked up but Dan doesn’t bring it up if notices. If anything it’s simply the compliment itself that catches the man’s attention if the soft dusting on his cheeks and pure smile pulling at his features means anything.

Herbert can only remember complementing one person, his mentor Dr. Gruber. That doesn’t mean he didn’t want to send more praise Daniel’s way later on. 

* * *

He kinda figured since their first meeting Herbert did have the tendency to be arrogant, it’s exceedingly obvious now at lunch while they’re in the teacher’s lounge and he comes face to face with Carl Hill.

Dan had wanted to get in that bastard's face for some time and it’s equally as fulfilling, maybe even more so, that Herbert is confronting him so eloquently. Francesca who is sitting beside him eating a pudding cup is watching the scene tersely, while Dan can’t seem to keep the beginnings of a smile off his face.

Carl had an inch on him meaning he had not quite a foot on Herbert and it meant nothing. Herbert was just as intimidating and all consuming as Hill, and even then the young scientist had a leg up on him.

He fought with words and an equally as elegant gate. It’d be an endlessly entertaining year.

* * *

It’s on Wednesday of their first week that Herbert meets Meg Halsey. It’s Herbert’s day to teach so Dan is at his apartment looking through the student’s  _ about me _ papers that Herbert refused to even touch.

She barges through the door with a shrill, “Danny!” that makes Herbert break his pencil and the student’s jump, one nearly falling off their stool and braining themselves on the lab table.

“Oh, Dr. West,” she’s very obviously disappointed, and the kids look to him with a bewilderment that he feels personally.

“And you are?” His tone is professionally unkind, something either ignored or unnoticed by the peppy blonde, who smiles with a fake smile, sizing him up with her eyes.

“Secretary Megan Halsey,” he doesn’t stand down even when he hears the last name. Her trilling endearment of his partner’s name grates on his nerves for a possessive reason. 

One he doesn’t have any true right to. He’s known Daniel for four days and for some reason, or maybe because in his mind Dan the Adonis has been built in his brain like Frankenstein’s monster, he had intrinsically deemed himself as Victor, meaning the monster was  _ his _ .

He returns a tight lipped, equally as fake smile and doesn’t pull his punches, “Dan will be in tomorrow, please try not to interrupt his lesson in the same way you did mine,” the students actually gape at him, embarrassed the girl gives a curt nod before leaving. 

The student’s had noticed their new teacher was peculiar, especially compared to his swarthy counterpart; it’s this interaction that cements the same fact Dan had come to the first day he’d met Herbert West.

They were in for an entertaining year.

* * *

The congratulatory announcement surprises them both, it’s a challenging lab day so both Dan and Herbert are teaching together, and the students clap happily at the accomplishment.

Their class had the highest grades in the school, their lowest grade was a C+ and it was only because the poor girl had gotten sick and missed a test that she would be taking at lunch under Dan’s and Herbet’s watch, well really more as they ate and graded papers.

They’d been doing a lot of their work together as of late, their new chairs luckily no longer squeaking, especially when they pulled them across the room to each other's desk so they could grade together.

The two shared a smile at the announcement, the sight welcome. Dan always loved it when Herbert smiled at the success of his accomplishments. Even more so when it came at the expense of the other teachers. None of them, except ever supportive Francesca, understood how it was possible for the two of them, mainly Herbert, to teach the most successful class at the school.

Really they had all their bases covered and them and their student’s fell into a tranquil existence. Dan was better at the auditory lessons, Herbert was best when it came to the labs, and Dan was who handled the students who had questions about their grades as they were a little afraid to ask Herbert. 

It wasn’t the only development they’d gotten used to. It was commonplace for the students to mess up their last names. At first they figured it was because they alternated days and came in together other days, slip ups were bound to happen. 

It was Dan who realized that a few of the students were intentionally mixing up their names because they were looking at them as a couple.

Instead of making a big deal of it, Dan ignored it, deciding it would be best not to explain their stint to Herbert. That and he didn’t want to ingrain that thought further into his brain.

His crush on Herbert had developed with a pace he couldn’t even begin to keep up with. And if the tentative touches, and Herbert’s blatant misdirection when it came to keeping Meg away, along with the man doing his paperwork for him everytime he had a bad day (mainly caused by Carl Hill).

Well...Herbert admittedly wasn’t the nicest person, so his actions potentially alluded to a mutual enamour. At least that’s what Dan thought, or more accurately hoped.

* * *

Herbert admitted, to himself at least, there had been growing feelings in his empty chest towards his teaching partner. Heartfelt Dan made it easy to fall in love, and realize it was love, even to someone like him who’d never experienced it.

Not falling for Doctor Cain was a losing battle, one he was destined to fail because how in the hell could he not? How could he not grow attached to the man who brought him coffee even on the day’s he had off under the guise he was picking up papers? Catching him the other day when he’d been blown off his stool, and flustering him without even being there! A student had spilled their coffee all over his copy of Frankenstein, when he’d gotten in the next day a new hardcover copy was laying on his desk, a sticky note from Dan on top.

_ I felt bad about your copy so I got you a new one! - Dan :) _

Herbert had stuttered basically the whole rest of his lesson, gesturing wildly with his hands in an attempt to make up for it. It didn’t save his dignity, and oddly enough he didn’t really care. 

It’s an overheard confrontation that startles Herbert enough to face the fact that something is coming of this. They’d stopped eating in the teacher’s lounge a while back but Dan goes down there every now and again to grab some napkins or have a talk with Francesca.

Herbert had been jealous of her at first too, except he found out rather quickly the woman had a man back at home that she was working to fly him out. Plus Dan didn’t look at anyone in the same way he looked at him, so he’d pushed down that feeling even when there were times it reemerged.

“I just don’t understand how you and that insufferable West have the highest student satisfaction,” Hill’s voice is proud and pretentious over the sound of the water cooler. He’s obviously talking to Dan.

Herbert’s well aware Carl doesn’t like either of them, and as much as he got on him, it’s nothing compared to the hell he puts Dan through. They figured out it was partially because the man was lusting after the principal's daughter, who was subsequently thirsting after Dan. It’s comical how that pissed him off more than Herbert’s blatant disrespect.

“If I was a student I’d much rather sit through his class than yours, not to mention half your material is outdated, obsolete. It’s no wonder about seventy eight percent of your student’s go out into the world wrecked with wrong information,” Dan retorts, angrily swiping his mug off from the counter, and nearly running straight into Herbert as he exited.

Feigning innocence, Herbert schooled his features, acting as if he hadn’t heard what had just occurred even though inside he was smirking like a madman. Dan’s eyes widened at the sight of him, a smile that’s more for Herbert’s sake than his own lighting his face.

The undercurrent of upset wafting off Dan though is enough to get a plan in motion in the scientist’s brain. 

Dan gave him a nod and went off, leaving for the day since Herbert would be instructing a small lab that day while Dan made the compromise of grading the packet they’d assigned that week.

He could set his plan into motion soon, it’d be good for the both of them. 

* * *

It’s Dan that sets their relationship into motion, this isn’t a surprising fact, Herbert figured it would be Dan to make the first move, and what they end up doing isn’t usual for either of them but it’s the best they could do on short notice.

It’s a bar a little off campus, understaffed and with little to no occupation. Neon green accent lights and the blue floor lights set an macabre ambiance followed by an undercurrent of music that drowns out other patrons' conversations.

The neon green illuminated Herbert’s face making his pale skin even lighter, and the shadows on his face were even darker but more finely shaped in the absence of warm light. There is a glint coming off his glasses and his lips gleamed with the moisture from his drink. It’s all Dan needs to lean in and press his lips to them.

Herbert is frozen only for a second before his hands are bracing the other man’s chest reverently. No ones looking their way and Herbert’s left hand slips up until his fingers are tangled in the man’s nape.

They pull apart begrudgingly and look around, making sure that no one is watching before Herbert is tucked under Dan’s chin and they are swaying to music that shouldn’t be as romantic as it is.

“You know my rent has been getting higher lately,” it’s an absent murmur against Dan’s sternum before Herbert is leaning back, his hand intertwining with Dan’s and the other settling on the man’s waist.

“Mmm, mine too,” Dan chuckles in turn, firmly planting his free hand on the other man’s lower back, “I might need to start looking for a roommate,”

“A roommate?” Herbert muses playfully, carefully following the man’s lead as they dance. 

“Yeah, would you know anyone that’s interested?”

“In fact I just might,”

* * *

There are weirder things in life than buying an old home settled on a cemetery. It’s a thirty minute drive from work but they don’t mind, not as they carpool and discuss the logistics of reanimating the dead, and Victor Frankenstein’s attraction to his monster.

A stray black cat shows up on a cold night and Dan doesn’t hesitate to let the cat in. He is deemed Rufus and Herbert is a little put out that they didn’t name him Igor but he’s working on a surprise apparently that’s keeping his spirit up so Dan doesn’t really consider changing the cat’s name.

He’s curious as to what his little scientist is doing yet Herbert is exceptionally good at keeping secrets.

It’s a good thing Herbert’s surprise is unravelled that very week, the Doctor was starting to get antsy.

It was Dean’s report week meaning he was stopping in on classes to observe for a while, and not only that, Hill was out of town for a seminar and Dean would be covering his class.

Herbert had been snooping around Hill’s office for a while, looking for what he knew the man likely had to incriminate him. He was fortunate it didn’t take him very long to find the sealed envelope of predatory photos the man had taken of Meg.

If the envelope was spilled open inside the drawer that the bastard kept his pens, well...it was a fault on Carl’s part and not Herbert. His smile stretched as he led the lab and heard the shouts. Dan stands up from his desk concerned but stops in his tracks when he notices the content ease radiating off his counterpart.

He stays standing, instructing the students who look seconds away from rising from their seats to peak out from the doorway and watch the commotion. 

The bell rings and the student’s finally get to rush out without so much as a goodbye. Herbert is close behind so he can shut and lock the door, before turning back to Dan.

“Do I want to know?” he’s not particularly scared, or even truly worried, but he’s certainly confused and exhilarated to the point there’s blush on his cheeks.

“Well I may have utilized Hill’s own folly to get him in trouble with Principal Halsey,” As he speaks his tone turns from pride to confusion as Dan closes the blinds. Dan has him pressed against the wall and their lips smashed together before he can think further. 

It’s an excellent way of saying thank you.

* * *

Whether Herbert or Dan slipped up or the odd revelation that there was a man perving on Meg that she knew since she was little, perspective seemingly rushed to her head. 

Her infatuation with Dan bristled out into the wind when she noticed the two teacher’s soft touches and endeared looks.

The insight makes their interactions awkward when they bring her the attendance sheets and other paperwork that needed to get to her father. Awkward enough that she pulls him aside to apologize, and Dan thankfully is understanding, but it’s not unnoticed that he rushes back to Herbert right after.

It’s forgotten by the time she’s instructed to help settle in the new professor taking over Hill’s old class. It’s gross to think that her photos once resided in the woman’s new desk, but it falls away the second her eyes meet Ms. Gloria Bride’s.

The woman might as well have her heart in her chest. 

**Author's Note:**

> Snap: allisonw1122  
> Tumblr/twitter: webtrinsic1122  
> Insta:Webtrinsic


End file.
